


What Was But Never Shall Be

by Hinn_Raven



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coma, F/M, Family, Fluff and Angst, Sad Ending, Time Travel, What Could Have Been
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 16:30:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3657279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinn_Raven/pseuds/Hinn_Raven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The year is 2020, and Iris West-Allen learns that her husband was struck by lightning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Was But Never Shall Be

**Author's Note:**

> I was so emotional when I learned that Barry shouldn't have become the Flash until 2020, since it is frustratingly clear that if Barry hadn't been struck by lightning when he was he and Iris would be in a relationship already. So I wrote this to express my frustrations, and try to create the world that I think could have been, if it weren't for Eobard Thawn.

Barry gets struck by lightning on their fourth wedding anniversary. Iris was sitting at home, waiting for the inevitable phone call that he’s running late, can she please not look in the closet?, when her father calls instead.

“He’s been struck by lightning,” her dad tells her, and Iris’s heart stops. She runs to the car, and drives so fast that she gets pulled over, and it’s only because she explains what’s happened to Barry that Eddie lets her go, telling her to hurry and be careful.

But Barry is in a coma, and the particle accelerator has exploded. Tess Morgan and Harrison Wells are devastated and shocked, pouring out heartfelt apologies to the public and to the families of victims. They pay for everything, pouring their entire fortune into victim relief and medical expenses, desperately trying to help the people they had hurt. Iris doesn’t care for so long, just comes by to hold her husband’s hand and wait for him to wake up.

She cries and misses him—misses his awful jokes and silly kisses, the way he comes to her work with awful flower arrangements and pastries because he has the day off. She misses him laughing as he wraps his arms around her, the way he plays with her hair. She misses him because he’s her best friend as well as her husband, has been since they were kids, and she doesn’t know what to do without hearing his voice or laugh.

Hank and Nora are wonderful, opening their arms and their house to her. She sleeps on their couch some nights, unable to handle the emptiness of her bed without Barry there, draping his lanky self all over her. She avoids home as much as possible—it’s too empty without him there.

Her dad lets her move back in—“Just until Barry wakes up,” they reassure each other, as Iris tries to get used to things, but it’s so wrong. She and Barry had been together for six years now, been married for four, and now she has to relearn all her habits, to leave him out of her life. She plays with her wedding ring—the replica of her mother’s that he had given her on their first Christmas together—and waits for Barry to wake up.

They say he will, but the months go by and hope dwindles. She still stops by every day, changing the flowers and telling him about her day, hoping he can somehow hear her. Mason comes with her sometimes, to show his support, as does Wally and Linda. “He’ll wake up,” everyone promises her, and she just wants someone to tell _Barry_ that, since he’s clearly been ignoring the memo.

She slowly gets to know the Star Labs crew—Caitlin and her husband Ronnie, Cisco and his boyfriend Hartley. Harrison Wells, wheelchair bound after the explosion, and Tess Morgan, whose hands are scarred from burns that will never heal. They go out to eat sometimes, and she listens to them talk about science, and her heart aches because she knows that Barry would love this.

Linda drags her and Caitlin out sometimes, and they go dancing or drinking or just hang out at Jitters, and Iris is so grateful for the two of them.

The city bursts with meta-humans, and the police are busier than ever, chasing down men who wield fire and lightning and ice, who disappear or warp reality or use magic. Iris writes article after article, and gets acclaimed for her reporting. She borrows Cisco’s names for the meta-humans and they tend to stick, which delights him. Hartley tells her she’s a bad influence, which makes her laugh, and she goes to tell Barry as he sleeps.

Barry wakes up after twelve awful months of loneliness. He’s a meta-human now, and his excitement is hilarious and wonderful, everything that Iris had ever thought it would be. He runs faster than anything Iris has ever imagined, and he drags her to talk to Oliver and the others down in Starling, and before long he’s wearing scarlet and calling himself the Flash. Iris chases down her stories and writes her articles. The Flash is a hero, and the whole world soon knows it. Her interview with him gets picked up by national news, and she’s soon swamped with offers from other newspapers, other cities, even news stations. She turns them all down—Central City is her heart, her soul, and even though Barry would follow her anywhere, this city is there home.

Barry joins up with something called the Justice League, and he brings home his new friends—one of whom is Clark Kent, and she uses that shamelessly to arrange a meeting with Lois Lane at last. The two of them become fast friends, and they start sending each other emails, laughing.

She scores the first proper interview with Wonder Woman, and writes an expose on the importance of the Justice League, which gets her nominated for a Pulitzer. She is swamped with congratulations from the Star Labs team and the League alike, and she laughs and leans against Barry’s shoulder and is so _happy_ that she thinks the universe might be close to making up for the months on Hank and Nora’s couch and her old single bed at her dad’s.

She finds out she’s pregnant eighteen months after the lightning.

Hank and Nora are delighted, laughing and grabbing for bottles of champagne that hadn’t been touched since her bachelorette party. Her dad hugs her so tightly, his eyes shining with tears when he learns. Barry vibrates excitedly, grinning from ear to ear, and then they all realize that the child might have the speed, and they panic, and run to Star Labs for second, third, fourth, and fifth opinions.

They also learn they’re having twins that way, and Caitlin lets slip that they’re going to have a boy and a girl, which annoys Iris, because she wanted it to be a surprise, but she gets over it, and laughs, and promises Caitlin godmother, and lets Cisco and Hartley bicker about godfather, but she knows that cousin Wally would kill her if he didn’t get it, so she sends him an email, promising him the position, and asks him if Linda would like to come to the baby shower.

Names are suggested from all sides, many of them awful speed puns or references, and Iris laughs until she cries as she realizes just how much the heroes of the world are gigantic nerds.

She grows large, and Barry is attentive to the point of hovering, so much that Wally and Linda make it a point to drag him away from her to give her space when she needs it, and she’s surrounded by people who are here for her, and it’s overwhelming, sometimes, that she has gone from such loneliness to such joy in such a short time.

Supervillains turn up for the baby shower, and Iris glares at Cold until he promises not to commit any crime while Barry’s on paternity leave, and then confiscates the miniature flamethrower that Mick had _somehow_ thought was an appropriate gift. She keeps the themed baby bibs, however.

The twins are born, and they are speed crawling through the house, driving all three grandparents, a host of aunts, uncles, godparents, cousins, friends, and, of course, the parents, up the wall. Barry’s the one who does the most, since he can keep up with them, and Iris is never more grateful for his speed than when he dashes out of their bed at night to calm the twins.

And then Thawn arrives, hatred in his eyes and anger in his heart, and Iris sees her city rise up against him—the Rogues and the League fight side by side to protect Barry; none of them are willing to let him fall. Iris holds Tess’s hand, staring out at the screen to see Caitlin, ice dancing from her hands fight beside Cisco, Ronnie and Hartley.

Thawn runs, and they think they’ve won.

Until the world starts changing around them, and they realize—it was only the beginning.

Iris holds her children and kisses her husband, and she wonders, staring out at her family, what exactly Thawn has changed in the past that is stealing them away from her.

Time ripples, and the thought is lost forever.


End file.
